His magazine profile of Moynihan is typically disgraceful, but predictable, given the Times's love of the old drunk and Weisberg's desire to please his editors. Of course there is much bashing of the left, but it is in the section that deals with Moynihan's time at the UN that I found most repellent. After telling the story of how Moynihan heroically denounced "the hypocrisies of third world dictatorships," Weisberg has the nerve to write:
"Moynihan deserves great credit for his work at the United Nations, even if his accomplishment was mainly a rhetorical one. What he did there was to forcefully articulate a consistent liberal internationalism, based on democracy and respect for human rights, at a time when noninterventionism and skepticism about America's role in the world were becoming dominant strains in the Democratic Party."
You won't go broke writing this trash. Apart from the fairy tale about the Dems (Carter's record in these matters is well known, save to Weisberg, apparently), Weisberg fails to mention what is perhaps Moynihan's greatest legacy in the UN, namely, the diplomatic cover he helped to give Indonesia as it was slaughtering Timorese. Indeed, the old drunk bragged about it in his memoirs. Weisberg is thus on record as celebrating a man who was complicit in mass murder that rivaled, in per capita terms, Pol Pot's Camobodia (some say Timor was worse, but I'll forgo the exact body count for now). Not bad for a third-rate hack. He's coming up in the world.
Turning to the lead ed, we find Weisberg's wisdom dispensed once again, this time in yet another character assassination of Ralph Nader. I'm sure most of you have read it; if not, you can imagine it. More of Nader's Leninist "worse is better" tendencies, flaws that place him "beyond the reach of reason." I can just see Howell Raines patting Weisberg on the head, then having him fetch another assignment. Woof woof.
DP